Word: gruenther
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...captive audiences and in public Al Gruenther sturdily ex-tolls the long, hard distance NATO has come from the days when Ike and Al first set up headquarters in the Astoria Hotel near the Arc de Triomphe, and ex-Prizefighter Georges Carpentier ran the bar downstairs. Then there were fewer than 15 NATO divisions, only one of them combat ready; the rest were largely split up into occupation units. Then there was no plan, and no communications to set it in motion. A phone call to Oslo took twelve hours, and passed through the Soviet zone of Germany. All that...
...Today Gruenther proclaims proudly: "Our resources are from four to five times what they were in those dark days of 1951." There is a plan, and "each unit knows what to do." The call to Oslo takes three minutes and goes direct. NATO has spent $1.9 billion building miles of road, miles of pipelines, supply depots and bases. Greece, Turkey and West Germany have joined NATO's ranks. Gruenther even makes a virtue out of his frustrations, pointing out the democratic problems in allocating costs for such things as airfields. "What should Norway pay for an airfield in Turkey...
...knows better than Gruenther that the history of NATO is also a story of NATO nations constantly falling short of constantly reduced goals. The original goal of 90 active divisions was cut by the Three Wise Men*to 50. Soon after he took command in mid-1953, Gruenther recognized that not even this goal was going to be met. In the U.S., Eisenhower shifted U.S. rearmament from a crash basis to "the long haul." In Europe, making a virtue of what was political necessity, Gruenther set up the New Approach Group to devise a new strategy for the defense...
...Gruenther confronted the 15-nation NATO council with the choice. If they were unwilling to supply more men to fight, they would have to accept the atom. The stern logic of numbers prevailed over the cold horrors of the new science. In December 1954 the NATO council approved the new strategy...
...created a community powerful enough to deter its enemy, healthy enough to survive family squabbles so far, binding enough so that no member has wished to withdraw. And for NATO's present solidity and good repute, the free world has reason to be grateful to General Al Gruenther...